Women in Science and Engineering at Yale (2020 Edition)

Liza Comita, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, School of the Environment and in Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Photo credit: Sean Mattson, courtesy of Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Liza Comita’s research focuses on the ecological mechanisms driving patterns of diversity, dynamics, and species distributions in both pristine and human-altered tropical forests. Her current projects include studies of the role of plant-pathogen interactions in maintaining tropical tree diversity and the impact of drought on tropical forest regeneration. This photo shows her transplanting seedlings as part of a large field experiment designed to examine within-species variation in drought resistance in tropical tree species across a rainfall gradient in central Panama.